BuzzerBeater Forums

Feel free to ask anything you want (BB related, of course) and BB-Marin will, with the help of our trusty EGM-s, Nickleon and Perpete, try to answer your questions. The thread will be, at one point, closed, but we will, nevertheless, still try to answer all of the inquiries that are made. The usual forum rules apply. Also, try to be specific, direct and concise. Thank you.

Let the enlightenment begin!

Last edited by BB-Marin at 1/28/2015 5:58:00 AM

Hello Marin,

Why doesn't exist chemistry between players in BB?


I think it's the reality and in order to prevent day trading just before a match, for example.

Thank you for this opportunity Marin

Like many people around here, I love this game. And like other people, I’m a bit scared by the loss of many users. Can Buzzerbeater sustain this « low » number of users ? For how long ? And is there any plan to bring more people to the game ?

Last edited by Phoenix at 1/28/2015 6:20:30 AM

Soooo, let's start

1) Do you intend to make a new "Arena Rebuild" like 15? seasons ago? But this time the managers shouldn't receive 100% of the investetd money. More like only 50%.

2) Let's say we have two skills, which are closely connected, Skill A and B. And Skill B depends on Skill A. If both skills are the same level you have the best output. If skill A > skill B, you are under 100%. So you lose important power and as a manager you should aim for equal levels. But what happens if Skill B > Skill A? I think you lose potential output. Skill B could give you more offense or defense power but it is restricted because of the lower level of Skill A. Am I right?

3) The PR. I think I understand most of his tasks. A higher PR level means your fans agree to pay higher prices. He will also influence your fan survey. I think a higher PR level is more important after a loss. If you lose, your fans hate you... especially my fans. With a low PR level it will take 3 or 4 victories to raise the overall rating at the "before the loss" level. A high PR only needs 1 or 2 victories. He is just better and the fans come back faster. Hot or cold?

4) Do you think OD is 1) overpowerd or 2) maybe to cheap? Currently it's the "God-Skill" in BB. Everyone tries to train OD and it's cheap like hell. For an outside team it's like a never ending horror story.

5) What do you think about the idea to move the transfer deadline to the ASG week? This would hurt teams which buy high salary players just 1 or 2 weeks before the playoffs and train GS (the GS down isn't very effective...). There could be an excetion for one player for the time between ASG and Playoffs.

6) Fan survey. Are there any plans to change the current system?

7) Hidden skills. We know that there are several hidden skills. Two of them are already discovered. Could you give us the number of hidden skills? It's easier to search for something if you know that you has to find six or seven of them.

Why doesn't exist chemistry between players in BB?

The short answer is that we already have something similar. In respect to match efficiency, new players have a game shape drop, in respect of finances, we have a drop in fan survey results. Also, trading a lot has a bad effect on your transfer tax rate, while you're still forced to pay at least one week of salary. PO and B3 eligibility prevent daytrading for the sole purpose of winning those really important games.

You're probably thinking of something that would negatively affect the match efficiency of all the team players due to the addition of a new player. For that we don't need a complicated team chemistry algorithm, for that we can just add a game shape drop for all players when buying a new player. Of course, this would reflect negatively on the transfer market and the whole dynamic of BB, which is something we'd like to avoid. So, for now, we'd rather just not do it.

Like many people around here, I love this game. And like other people, I’m a bit scared by the loss of many users. Can Buzzerbeater sustain this « low » number of users ? For how long ? And is there any plan to bring more people to the game ?

BB wasn't created with a starting number of 50k users We had a small number of users before, much smaller than now, and we grew. From the technical point of view, sustaining a smaller number of users is much easier than handling a sudden large growth. We believe the currently falling user count is a problem, but not a catastrophic one, and remain optimistic about the future. Also, some things may have artificially inflated the number of users before, like farm teams and multiple accounts. Removing these had a result of a visible drop of user numbers, even though the drop of real users was much smaller.

This problem can be turned around with some investments in more advertising and hopefully, some more involvement of our users in the promotion of the site (reviews, blogs, ratings, social media...). Ads can only go so far, direct, word of mouth type of promotion is what really works best.

I personally believe that the BB image was hurt a lot in the past due to some mistakes and problems. We have, however, fixed those and have, since then, had a very good run of stability and dependability, generally improving our image and user satisfaction. This surely didn't go unnoticed.

BB is now almost 8 years old (first matches of season 1 were played on 04/17/2007). That fact in itself is a great achievement for a web based game. This gives us motivation going forward and we plan on going for a long, long time. Some changes might be overdue (the mobile app, better social media activity, for instance), but eventually we'll get those done and we'll see the number of users rise again. We believe it, and with your help, we know we can do it.

Really encouraging, thank you

tnx for that thread

1) i realy dont see any reason why the shape should drop on buying new player for the
roster in the first 0-4 weeks of the season, in many occasions its takes time to get the
team ready for the next season escpecially for the teams that compete till the end and
in my opinion you should give that time for teams as part of their preperation,
its not hurting the cause for which that rule was made for.

2) why dont you boost the income(tv,crowd)
for the lower divisions(escpecially the 2nd div)?
it will help them to be more compatetive in the cup tournament and more important
it will allow them to fit to the top league in more compatetive way when they promote their.
today unless the team have a lot of money its almost impossible for them
to be a real contender beacuse of the huge differences in the roster salary
and the arena size that they have to enlarge
it will make the game much more competetive for all.

3) the merchendise income. in my opinion very problematic.
as for now it is heavely relying on local players.
there is almost( if any) no wheight for titels won or achievments.
in many nations the local players are not good anough for the highest level
and/or have very little from them which is causing also for inflation prices on them
and more important, in the global ring it causes inequality in budgets against nations
that have large numbers of quality players

basicly somthing feels not wright because there is almost no rewarding
for titles and achievments at all and in many cases those teams dont have
finance advantage over the most of the other league mates.
prestige is nice but come on...

Last edited by sexes at 1/28/2015 7:59:06 AM

one more thing :

i was sure that in some point you will come around and change
the live game screen from java to html5.
is it not on your todo list?
many users have iphones and ipads and it is realy a hustle.
are you not planning to adress this issue?
an app will also be a blessing here.


Last edited by sexes at 1/28/2015 8:23:31 AM

1) Do you intend to make a new "Arena Rebuild" like 15? seasons ago? But this time the managers shouldn't receive 100% of the investetd money. More like only 50%.

2) Let's say we have two skills, which are closely connected, Skill A and B. And Skill B depends on Skill A. If both skills are the same level you have the best output. If skill A > skill B, you are under 100%. So you lose important power and as a manager you should aim for equal levels. But what happens if Skill B > Skill A? I think you lose potential output. Skill B could give you more offense or defense power but it is restricted because of the lower level of Skill A. Am I right?

3) The PR. I think I understand most of his tasks. A higher PR level means your fans agree to pay higher prices. He will also influence your fan survey. I think a higher PR level is more important after a loss. If you lose, your fans hate you... especially my fans. With a low PR level it will take 3 or 4 victories to raise the overall rating at the "before the loss" level. A high PR only needs 1 or 2 victories. He is just better and the fans come back faster. Hot or cold?

4) Do you think OD is 1) overpowerd or 2) maybe to cheap? Currently it's the "God-Skill" in BB. Everyone tries to train OD and it's cheap like hell. For an outside team it's like a never ending horror story.

5) What do you think about the idea to move the transfer deadline to the ASG week? This would hurt teams which buy high salary players just 1 or 2 weeks before the playoffs and train GS (the GS down isn't very effective...). There could be an excetion for one player for the time between ASG and Playoffs.

6) Fan survey. Are there any plans to change the current system?

7) Hidden skills. We know that there are several hidden skills. Two of them are already discovered. Could you give us the number of hidden skills? It's easier to search for something if you know that you has to find six or seven of them.

Your post is really long and with many questions, so excuse me if I am brief, I do not intend to be rude.

1) No.
2) If B > A, it's again the same as A > B, you are under 100%. I'm not sure if that makes you right.
3) I don't want to answer. This is in the domain of "figure it out by yourself".
4) We are considering some options to reduce the "power" of OD, especially regarding threes. I believe this is an artifact from the "run&gun domination" era which ended up being too strong afterwards.
5) I don't like it. We need to avoid limiting the transfer market in the foreseeable future, since we added some limits on it during the last couple of seasons.
6) Yes.
7) No.

1) i realy dont see any reason why the shape should drop on buying new player for the
roster in the first 0-4 weeks of the season, in many occasions its takes time to get the
team ready for the next season escpecially for the teams that compete till the end and
in my opinion you should give that time for teams as part of their preperation,
its not hurting the cause for which that rule was made for.

2) why dont you boost the income(tv,crowd)
for the lower divisions(escpecially the 2nd div)?
it will help them to be more compatetive in the cup tournament and more important
it will allow them to fit to the top league in more compatetive way when they promote their.
today unless the team have a lot of money its almost impossible for them
to be a real contender beacuse of the huge differences in the roster salary
and the arena size that they have to enlarge
it will make the game much more competetive for all.

3) the merchendise income. in my opinion very problematic.
as for now it is heavely relying on local players.
there is almost( if any) no wheight for titels won or achievments.
in many nations the local players are not good anough for the highest level
and/or have very little from them which is causing also for inflation prices on them
and more important, in the global ring it causes inequality in budgets against nations
that have large numbers of quality players

basicly somthing feels not wright because there is almost no rewarding
for titles and achievments at all and in many cases those teams dont have
finance advantage over the most of the other league mates.
prestige is nice but come on...

one more thing :

i was sure that in some point you will come around and change
the live game screen from java to html5.
is it not on your todo list?
many users have iphones and ipads and it is realy a hustle.
are you not planning to adress this issue?
an app will also be a blessing here.

1) We might consider not counting the transfers made by newly promoted teams during the first two weeks (this needs a bit more thought, though)
2) I disagree that it is impossible for them to compete once promoted. The promotion bonus and a fan spirit boost in itself is a big plus. My answer to question no.1 might help here more though, but the TV money and fan spirit algorithm remain the same.
3) You overestimate the importance of local players. There are many factors in the merchandise calculation and therefore it is hard to see the real reasons for a merch drop.

You don't think prestige is enough? We don't want to overflow the winners of titles and make them invincible over a number of seasons. BB is a competitive place and the minute you slip - you're not at the top anymore. That is the way it should be.

Actually, the match viewer is in flash, not Java. And yeah, we had some attempts of switching (converting) to HTML5 (which would help a lot of mobile users) but it failed. Building a new one from scratch is not possible at the moment. The only solution for users on mobiles and tablets is to use a flash enabled browser like Dophin or similar. These work quite well. An app is in our long term plans too.

Thank you for your answers.